Interviews

Mortal Kombat Vs. DC Universe Interview

GameSpy: Can we hear a little about the unique fighting style that I see the Joker has? He has a different stance than other characters?

Ed Boon: Yeah, y'know with the Joker everybody is starting to realize that he's not traditionally a fighter, he's just not that kind of guy. The approach that we're taking with the Joker's fighting style is that (because of the whole villain story that explains that his powers have been enhanced because of the magic that's coursing through him) he's kind of mocking fighting. It's a whole "put up your dukes" kind of thing, so that's why his approach to fighting is that he's just having such a good time with the fact that he can't fight and he never has. So we gave him a style that looks almost like he's goofing around.

GameSpy: And he's always been about crafting gadgets as well, could you tell us more about that?

Ed Boon: A lot of Joker's moves -- it's kinda in some ways just magic -- like, he's got a bunch of crap up his sleeves, so he's throwin' cards at you and he's got this big fist that comes from an extending arm. He's got the bombs, he's got the smoke puff where he jumps to a different part of the screen. He'll pistol whip you with his gun... he's just got all these crazy attacks that are obviously unrelated to fighting because he's not a fighting guy, so it's almost like he's cheating.
He's actually one of the most fun characters in the game. You know, up until recently, I really liked the Flash as my favorite, but the Joker has kind of taken over at the moment. He's one of those "fun to watch and play" characters.

GameSpy: The Joker seems to really ride that line between humor and sadism or evil, y'know?

Ed Boon: Well, yeah, I mean his fatality is such a big crowd pleaser because he takes something fun and just totally... well it makes you shudder to think. So we didn't want him to be just fun, we wanted some extra psychopathic action.

We've shown most of the basic fighting, but we really haven't expanded upon the more nuanced features in the game. A lot of the special moves have enhanced versions that you have to have really tight timing on, and there are a number of secret layers that we're putting in for the more hardcore fighters while at the same time keeping things simple. It's mainly a 2D strategy with jumping as opposed to sidestepping and you can still maneuver yourself around, but you're not going to learn the transition areas and stuff like that. The main strategy is 2D.